Jeff McDonald: Manu is back (sort of)

We media types were gathered near the practice courts, waiting for Tim Duncan to come talk to us. While we waited, injured guard Manu Ginobili came out to shoot around on the empty courts.

Initially, Ginobili was shooting at the court nearest us, but soon decided to move to the court farthest from us. This is where things got interesting.

On his way to the new court, Ginobili arrived roughly at the spot where the P.A. announcer would be sitting if this were the AT&T Center (midcourt, about three feet out of bounds). Here, Ginobili casually flipped the ball –underhanded — toward the basket he was approaching, 50 feet away.

Swish.

I mean, I don’t think the ball even touched rim. It was like something out of a Gatorade commerical, minus the smoke and mirrors and camera tricks.

As the assembled media “oooed” and “ahhhhed,” Duncan at last emerged from the dressing room. He didn’t even have to ask what the commotion was about.

“Where’d he make it from now?” Duncan asked us.

Ginobili is still a month and a half away from playing in an NBA game. But, as he proved Thursday, he can still play a mean game of H-O-R-S-E.

9 Responses

Can’t wait until Manu comes back. I’m a die hard Spurs fan, have been for years. Hopefully they can return to championship form again this year. The Western Conference is tough, we’ll just have to wait and see.

man, im glad manu is improving, i’m really excited on the upcoming season because i think this year is a spurs championship!!! im the greatest fan of manu ginobili for sure!!!i took up nursing in the philippines hoping to land a job as a nurse in san antonio texas and to see manu live!!!i just nid to pass my local boardexams ang nclex exams ang get some experience here and maybe ill see him for another 4years i hope he is still playing in that time!! but anyways im looking forward in meeting you!!!!! dis john signing off!!!!

I’m very glad for manu . But he is VERY , VERY ,Valuable . I wouldn’t even let him on the court. It’s been shown , If other teams shut down manu 1st. Then Duncan can score what he wants . And Tony Parker , won’t have no easy time. They are getting certain scoring but not much from Oberto , Kurt Thomas , and the regular season hasn’t started yet. And the way the WEST is now .(TIM WILL TELL ).